


Truce

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aftermath of Possession, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Have a Good Relationship, Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Character Death Fix, Family Bonding, Gen, Hospitalization, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Post-Season/Series 03, Step-siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 07:51:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19763791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Billy wakes up in the hospital after almost dying by the hands of the thing that had taken control of his life, and he shouldn't be surprised when Max is there but he is.She offers him an unlikely truce.





	Truce

It was on the fifth day that Billy opened his eyes for the first time, his body aching and his very soul afraid of what was inside him, or maybe what he was inside of, he wasn’t sure anymore, but when he realized that he was entirely himself and that the anger he felt was his and his alone, he started to breathe.

The hospital was sterile and white, almost blindingly so. The beeping in his ear was more than annoying, and he was in so much pain that he didn’t feel the needle digging into his arm. His head and heart were pounding as one, and for the first time in a very long time, he couldn’t feel the anger that threatened to overwhelm him.

Max was his only visitor the whole time he was there. He saw the other little kids waiting by the window, but none of them came in. They didn’t speak, Max obviously waiting for Billy to start any conversation, but they would just sit in silence until visiting hours would end and Max would be forced out, despite insisting, _we’re family, I’m his sister._

Turns out that Steve, on request from the others, had been driving them all to the hospital and back to their homes before their curfew. It was probably so they could all make sure that Max was safe, but it was probably also because Max had asked them to. Sometimes, Billy could see Steve’s big head in the window, his hair making him look taller than he really was, and Billy was just glad that he had ditched that stupid sailor's outfit. Sometimes, he was with that girl, and they would laugh and joke and smile. Billy wondered if they were dating.

Once, the new girl, El her remembered her being called, stuck her face up to the window and watched him intently, and he didn’t know who she was or where she came from but he remembered vividly her being in his head and seeing his memories of his mother on the beach, and that when tried to sacrifice her to the monstrosity, she reminded him who she was. Maybe Billy didn’t know her, but in the end, he was willing to die to protect her, so maybe she was important after all.

The day before he was supposed to be discharged from the hospital, after many painful months, Max wasn’t there, but one his bedside table was a square-shaped gift wrapped in bright paper and stickers and his name scrawled in Max’s messy, goofy handwriting. When Billy opened it, it was the new Bon Jovi album that he had been saving up for, and he felt a swell of joy.

On the very last day, when he could mostly feel all his limbs, Max had decided that she’d had enough of the silence and decided to break the cycle. “So,” she said. She looked so different from the last time he’d seen her. Determined. Angry. Strong. “Are you ready to talk now?”

Everything inside Billy was telling him to shut his mouth, but there was something in Max’s eyes that said staying silent wasn’t the best idea. “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Speaking hurt- he hadn’t said a word the whole time he was in the hospital, not even to the nurses who poked and prodded at him.

There was a spark in Max’s eyes as she leant forward. “That you’re alright. That you remember. That you’re not going to try and kill me and my friends again any time soon. That you’re not going to die on me.”

Billy looked at her for a very long time. “Why are you here? Why do you come?”

“Aren’t I allowed to sit with my brother who’s recovering from being tortured and possessed and almost killed by an interdimensional monster from the Upside Down?” Her voice made him feel like an idiot for even asking.

“In case you hadn’t noticed already,” Billy grunted as he got comfortable against the pillows. “We’re not exactly a family, and I haven’t exactly been the best brother. Like you said- I tried to kill you and your friends.”

Scowling, Max shook her head. “No, that wasn’t you. Sure, it was your body doing all the work, but it was the Mind Flayer that made you do it. It was controlling you. You had no choice.”

Gritting his teeth, Billy tried not to cry, because he would die a thousand times before he got caught crying in front of his sister. “What do you _want_ , Max?”

If it was somehow possible, Max leant even closer to him until her hair was tickling his neck and her shoulders were hunched over him. He wanted to move away from the intensity of her gaze, but he was never one to back down from a challenge. “I’m here because I wanted to tell you that I forgive you. For everything. Even all the things that happened before the Mind Flayer.” Billy drew an involuntary intake of breath sharply into his lungs.

Max closed her eyes and took a moment to compose herself before opening them again. “And I wanted to tell you in person that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for not helping you when I had the chance. El said you were in there, fighting him the whole time, and there was nothing any of us could do. I could see it sometimes; you know? I could see it in your eyes. Maybe if I had given you hope or showed you some kindness before the end, then maybe you would have been able to fight him off sooner, and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But I didn’t, and I want you to know that I’m sorry about that.”

She took a steadying breath before she continued. “And… I knew what Neil was doing to you, and I never stepped in to help. I just got angry with you for how you were dealing with it, and sure, maybe you should have just talked to me instead of taking it out on me, but now that I know how bad it really was, bad enough for a demon to possess you and make it feel worthwhile, I can’t really blame you. And sure, maybe you’re a dick and have always been a dick, but you were always there for me when I needed you and came when I called. You picked me up and dropped me off a school. You took me out for ice-cream when I had a bad day. You made sure nobody messed with me at school. Thinks I didn’t know I needed until you stopped doing it. Until I _made_ you stop doing it.”

Billy felt like his very soul was about to crack into little tiny pieces. “I’m sorry.”

“We both should be sorry,” Max sounded relieved that she had gotten everything off her chest. “But not now. Now, I’m here to offer you something. Something I should have given you a long time ago.”

With a raised eyebrow, Billy summoned all his strength to look at her as she sat back in her chair. “And what’s that?”

Smiling, Max extended her arm out to him, over the metal cage-like barricade and just close enough so he didn’t have to reach his arm too far. “A truce. A promise that maybe, now that everything is different, that we could be different too. Better, maybe. A real family.”

There was a pause in which Billy look down at her hand and all the things it represents, not forgetting the past but forgiving it and embracing the future with open arms. He took it in his own hand as firmly as he could muster and shook it.

It was all worth it to see the look on Max’s face.

They had only just managed to enjoy a moment of peace between them before it was rudely broken by Steve walking through the door, pushing past the curtains with discharge papers in one hand and his car keeps spinning around his finger in the other. “You guys ready?”

“What the hell are you doing here, Harrington?” Billy barked, holding tightly to Max’s hand, almost possessively. “Come to gloat?”

It was a true testament to everything they all had been through that the only reaction Steve had to Billy’s outburst was to roll his eyes and wave the papers in his face. “I’m your ride home, jackass. You’re in no state to drive, and I like my life as it is. I’ll take a vacation in the Upside Down before I let your sister drive me anywhere ever again.”

Without taking his eyes off Steve, Billy looked side-long at Max. “You drove? On like, a real road?” Max nodded. “Good job. ‘m proud of you.”

“That’s not the point,” Steve jammed the papers in his pocket and began to approach them. “I need to get you out of bed. The head nurse already threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t get you out of here, and as I said, I like my life.”

Reluctantly, Billy let Steve hoist him out of bed and towards the waiting wheelchair, Max on his other side, and resisted snapping at him with any nasty comments. _He's just trying to help_ , Billy reminded himself, _you’ll be free from him soon._ “What’s in it for you?” he asked out loud through his teeth. 

“Me?” Steve laughed gleefully. “I get to push Billy Hargrove down the disability ramp in a wheelchair.”

Max laughed then, and Billy couldn’t find it within himself to be angry.


End file.
